Montenegro says an investigation has shown that Russian nationalists were behind an alleged coup attempt on election day because of the government's bid to join NATO. Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic said Sunday that the investigation leads to the conclusion that "nationalists from Russia" organized a criminal group that planned to break into Parliament and cause violence in the tiny Balkan country. Some 20 Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, including a former commander of Serbia's special police forces, were arrested in Montenegro during the Oct. 16 election.

Montenegro's chief special prosecutor has said "nationalists from Russia" were behind an attempt to assassinate the PM and carry out a coup. Milivoje Katnic said the plot involved killing pro-Western PM Milo Djukanovic with a professional long-distance sharpshooter. The plotters are accused of planning to break into parliament and bring a pro-Russian government to power.

With xenophobia and regional tensions on the rise, the EU has to get tough with the new Croatian government – all cultural nods and winks towards second world war fascism must go.Andrej Plenkovic, president of HDZ, waves to his supporters in Zagreb, Croatia on 8 September 2016. Photograph: Antonio Bronic/Reuters Amid the alleys and ancient churches of Šibenik, Croatia, the late-summer tourists look quizzical as a tough old man harangues a meeting in the public square. “In 1945, people worked for free to build factories, roads, new houses. We wanted to build a better country then,” he says. “Find me...

A year ago Germany showed itself as a country offering help. Security wasn’t an issue, but today it’s clear that terrorists have misused refugee routes and extremists are recruiting members amongst refugees. The terrorist attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach in July were not related to the arrival of so many refugees in the autumn of 2015. Both assailants were already living in Bavaria. But the fact that people, who had been taken in by Germany, then took an ax and a bomb, respectively, and turned on those who had offered help, has highlighted the disturbing side of migration. Many now...

A group of about 40 immigrants has occupied the Catholic cathedral of Regensburg, Germany, demanding that they be allowed to remain in the country. The Regensburg diocese has announced that it will not grant "asylum in the church" to the immigrants, who come from Balkan countries. However, the diocese is also not asking police to intervene.

PEJA, Kosovo — FIRST, a three-part quiz: Which Islamic country celebrates as a national hero a 15th-century Christian who battled Muslim invaders? Which Islamic country is so pro-American it has a statue of Bill Clinton and a women’s clothing store named “Hillary” on Bill Klinton Boulevard? Which Islamic country has had more citizens go abroad to fight for the Islamic State per capita than any other in Europe? The answer to each question is Kosovo, in southeastern Europe — and therein lies a cautionary tale. Whenever there is a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists, we look to our enemies like...

The leaders of France and Germany assured prospective EU members in the Balkans on Monday that the British vote to leave the union won’t threaten eventual enlargement of the bloc. Balkan nations that survived wars and political breakups in the 1990s worry they will face more hurdles to membership as the EU struggles to keep itself together. And pro-Russian forces in countries such as Serbia are hoping to sway the region toward Moscow and away from the West, as the Brexit vote throws European unity into question. French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to soothe worries...

Jihadist Capital Of The Balkans The government estimates that more than 300 Kosovars have traveled to the Middle East to wage jihad, or Islamic holy war. That makes this predominately Muslim country of under 2 million people, which unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, Europe's biggest contributor per capita of IS foot soldiers. IS Recruiter One product of the radicalization in Kacanik is Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a 25-year-old IS recruiter who fights in Syria. He has been described as one of IS's top leaders. Last year, Muhaxheri sent shockwaves around Kosovo when he posted photos on Facebook of himself...

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted by U.N. judges of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst war crime in Europe since World War Two, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

THE HAGUE — Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, by a United Nations tribunal on Thursday for leading a campaign of terror against civilians that included the slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo. Mr. Karadzic, 70, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Mr. Karadzic of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre, which aimed to kill “every able-bodied male” in the town and systematically exterminate the Bosnian Muslim community...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday criticized an eastern European proposal to close the Balkans refugee route and vowed to push for a plan with Turkey to reduce the influx, at an EU summit. Merkel, under heavy pressure at home to reduce arrivals, supports a plan under which transit country Turkey would seal its borders and then fly refugees to Europe where they would be settled under an EU quota system. However, most countries in the European Union have shown little enthusiasm for the idea, and the so-called Visegrad Four - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - have openly...

A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who protested his indefinite confinement with a lengthy hunger strike has taken the unusual step of turning down a chance to finally leave the U.S. base in Cuba, rejecting an offer to be resettled in an unfamiliar new country. Muhammad Bawazir, a 35-year-old from Yemen, refused to board a plane as two other prisoners were being flown out for resettlement in the Balkans, his lawyer, John Chandler, said Thursday. Since returning to his homeland was not an option, he insisted on being sent to a country where he has family. Chandler said he spent months trying...

The seat of government in the capital, Pristina, briefly caught fire after it came under a hail of petrol bombs. Firefighters quickly doused the flames and police used tear gas to drive back several thousand opposition demonstrators. They were protesting against a European Union-brokered deal to give Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority greater local government powers and the possibility of financing from Belgrade. Opposition leaders say the government should resign over the accord and call an early election. ... Kosovo's government has accused opposition party leaders of organizing the violence and attempting to drag the country into "crime and anarchy." "The...

Bosnian police arrested a wartime Muslim army commander on Tuesday on charges of failing to prevent crimes committed by foreign Islamic fighters against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers during a 1992-1995 war. The arrest of 63-year-old retiree Sakib Mahmuljin was carried out on orders of the state war crimes prosecutor, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "The suspect is under investigation for acting in contravention of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions while serving as a commander of the 3rd Corps of the Army of BiH," it said. Mahmuljin has denied the charges during earlier proceedings. Many Islamic fighters,...

Top diplomats are gathering in Paris for a UNESCO conference where they will decide whether to grant Kosovo membership and how much sway the United States will have in the organization. The Obama administration is lobbying to keep the U.S. seat on the scientific and cultural agency's influential executive board, though the United States stopped paying its dues after UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member in 2011. ...

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi provided al-Qaida with chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction before changing heart and agreeing to destroy his arms program, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin has learned. Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kussa told U.S. and UK spy agencies that tens of thousands of weapons had been produced at 10 secret sites in the country. Kussa has named hundreds of what he termed "sleeper" al-Qaida agents in Britain and the U.S. Gadhafi's dramatic turnaround has earned him a future meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush. He was welcomed back on to the world stage...

Germany expects to receive up to 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, a new record, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday, as he urged action from the European level on the crisis. "This development is a challenge for us all," de Maiziere told reporters as he announced the new official estimate. Berlin had previously expected 500,000 asylum-seekers to arrive this year. Germany, the EU's most populous country and top economy, has struggled to accommodate a flood of asylum-seekers from war zones such as Syria but also from countries without military conflict in southeastern Europe, including Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. ......

For years I have been saying it: Most Americans still don’t know or understand the implications of America’s support of the jihad in Europe, but that’s exactly what Bill Clinton’s intervention in the Balkans was. Clinton sent American soldiers to fight alongside Bosnian mujahedeen against the Serb Christians in the Bosnia war. The Democrats aligned with the jihad then and the Democrats align with the jihad now, despite the thousands of Americans slaughtered at their hand. Here is yet more of the unending poisonous yield of Clinton’s vicious ill-conceived war. I continue to take heat for my support of...

Back in the 1990s something happened in central Bosnia-Herzegovina that inspired people to this day and helps explain why that country now has more men fighting in Syria and Iraq (over 300), as a proportion of its population, than most in Europe. The formation of a "Mujahideen Battalion" in 1992, composed mainly of Arab volunteers in central Bosnia, was a landmark. Today the dynamic of jihad has been reversed and it is Bosnians who are travelling to Arab lands. "There is a war between the West and Islam," says Aimen Dean, who, as a young Saudi Arabian volunteer, travelled to...

And you thought Sidney Blumenthal was shady. Few people have heard of Cody Shearer, the unsanctioned diplomat, private eye, and Clinton flunky whose name surfaced in connection with the so-called intelligence reports Sidney Blumenthal was channeling to Hillary Clinton during her time at the State Department. But this shadowy fixture of the Clinton machine was everywhere in the 1990s — including war-torn Bosnia, where he became the subject of a State Department investigation after he represented himself as an agent of the U.S. government and took cash from a genocidal warlord. Now evidence suggests Shearer, working with his partner Blumenthal,...

British jihadis recruited by Islamic State are using land routes run by human traffickers to travel unnoticed via the Balkans to fight in Syria—and to slip back into the UK. Experts warn this means there is no check or record of the fighter traveling across Europe—a journey that can take weeks—and over the Turkish border or, crucially, making the journey home. As a result, battle-hardened jihadis could be returning undetected to the UK from Syria and Iraq to potentially strike at home. …

(Original title too long: Muslims, Well Trained And Armed, Ambush Police Officers, Murder Five Police Officers, Injure Thirty More Officers, In Well Orchestrated Attack To Purposefully Help Usher In The Ottoman Empire) Well trained and armed Muslims in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo attacked police officers, killing five officers, and injuring thirty officers. The Muslims went into a rampage, burning down multiple homes as well. This was a very well orchestrated and calculated attack that is being done for the purpose of causing so much violent tension that it will lead to instability. This societal friction will be a part...

EPISODE 7: THE FINAL CHETNIK OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE AXIS / REVIEW by Carl Savich: Documentary Series "The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the Second World War" The Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the Second World War [2 Series: Why Were the Balkans Given Over to Communist Control?] is the second part of a documentary series consisting of six approximately 30 minute episodes. This series continues from part one which consisted of six episodes that examined the German invasion and subsequent occupation and dismemberment of Yugoslavia released in 2014. The first series analyzed the period from the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia...

(Reuters) - The unification of Albania and Serbia's majority-Albanian former province of Kosovo is "inevitable", whether it happens through membership of the European Union or not, Albania's prime minister said on Tuesday. The suggestion was denounced in Belgrade, where a senior official accused Tirana's Prime Minister Edi Rama of "banging the war drums" over Kosovo, which many Serbs regard as the cradle of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith. Serbia and the West are sensitive to any talk of unification of Albania and Kosovo, something Western powers ruled out when they backed Kosovo's secession from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo and...

If the western Balkan states were admitted to the EU, it would be beneficial to both sides, says Michael Roth, State Minister for Europe in the German foreign ministry, in an interview with DW. […] “I want to encourage the western Balkan states that want to belong to the European Union. There is no question: The road ahead of us is surely rocky, but it is worth it. We are not just an economic community, but also, above all, a union of values.” […] … “EU expansion lies in the interest of the states in the Western Balkans; it lies...

Leaving Kosovo: Exodus of young people as frustration soars By Guy De Launey BBC News, Kosovo 22 March 2015 From the section Europe "We are like two million birds in one cage, but we are hoping for a better life" The scene in Mitrovica's 7 Arte Cafe seems convivial enough. Fairy lights twinkle, a mixture of Albanian and English-language hits play over the sound system and the 20-somethings gathered around the tables regularly break into laughter. But the joviality papers over a grim reality for these young people. Kosovo may have unilaterally declared independence from Serbia seven years ago, but...

STANOVC, Kosovo — The extended Cakaj family has built a few dozen homes here, along Tony Blair Street, between the Dubai supermarket and the French peacekeepers base, in a clannish faith that closeness would bring security. But recently the family of Kosovo Albanians has begun to splinter, as a disastrous economy, static politics and a newly created opening in the border with Serbia have enticed tens of thousands of Kosovars to leave their troubled land in search of opportunity and work. “My son had no choice,” said Xhevat Cakaj, but to leave their enclave for Germany with his wife and...

...its lowest levels against the dollar for almost a year, amid investor nervousness about emerging markets. By evening trade in Istanbul the currency had fallen beyond TL2.30 to the US dollar, more than 1 per cent down on the day and the weakest level since January, when the Turkish central bank moved to increase interest rates -- a dramatic shift in policy that at the time halted a precipitous drop in its value. ...Turkey is far from alone in being affected by strong US economic data that has heightened expectations of a US Federal Reserve interest rate rise and so...

It is a fundamental principle of German foreign policy that talks are the best way to solve diplomatic problems. Such was the rationale behind Gernot Erler's recent trip to Moscow to speak with Russian parliamentarians about the ongoing Ukraine-related difficulties. Erler is the German government's Russia liaison and he has spent much of his political career working towards better relations between Germany and Russia. But his recent trip to the Russia capital was a painful one. There was no one in parliament who was willing to speak with him.

Maria Bamieh, a British prosecutor at the heart of EULEX corruption revelations, says the only way to restore faith in the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo is by holding an external enquiry. The scandal erupted on Monday (27 October) when Kosovo daily Koha Ditore wrote, citing evidence from leaked EULEX documents, that senior officials colluded with suspects in criminal cases, took bribes to shut down investigations, and quashed internal EULEX probes. …

Concepts of forced marriages, honor killings, Jihad, as well as self-segregation are fundamentally un-Canadian and should not be tolerated When Trudeau pčre sold Canadians the conceit of multiculturalism as a workable societal foundation, most people eagerly bought in. After all, what harm can there be in turning the drab Canadian mangia cake uniformity into a colorful, spicy multinational quilt? The upside includes wondrous, redolent, zesty foods; quaint customs and celebrations that turn the old homogeneity into a vibrant heterogeneous stew of warmth and mutual respect. Of course, there were those who warned that the concept was pretty far-fetched and not...

Another embarrassing mistake by Rachel Maddow. This time Rachel has revealed her unfamiliarity with some simple world geography. On her MSNBC show this evening, discussing President Obama's impending trip to one of the Baltic states--Estonia--Maddow told anecdotes of "the last time a US President visited the Balkans." Whoops! Maddow waxed on about how the last time an American president visited the "Balkans," it was George W., visiting Albania. Rachel recounted the story of how W's wrist-watch disappeared when he waded into a crowd of Albanian well-wishers. With malicious glee, Maddow mentioned that in honor of his visit, the Albanians erected...

The author's husband, Slobodan Mitric, with a statue of one of Serbia's most famous generals [Voyvoda Zivojin Misic] at the 1914 Battle of Cer in Serbia. TEKERIS, Serbia – While western World War I history buffs will likely flock to fields in the region of Flanders in Belgium or retrace the gruesome reality of trench warfare in the French area of Somme this centennial summer, many Serbs will gather on Cer mountain to remember the young men who died over nine brutal and bloody days in August 1914. Repelling a much stronger and better-outfitted Austrian war machine, the ragtag Serb...

Aleksandra's Note: The following documentary evidence, the source of which is the Austrian Ministerial Council during the "JULY CRISIS" of 1914 confirms the "theory" that war with Serbia was a foregone conclusion regardless of the Austrian "Ultimatum" that would follow on July 23 and regardless of Serbia's response to that Ultimatum. War would be waged against Serbia, period. What these officials present at this council meeting did not foresee was that war against Serbia would be just the beginning... Sincerely, Aleksandra Rebic ***** Franz Ferdinand (in fur-lined coat) on a hunting weekend with Wilhelm II (left) in 1914. AKG Images...

DUSK June 27, 2014 / Photo by Aleksandra Rebic Today is Friday, June 27, 2014. Exactly 100 years ago today was the day before everything in the world changed forever. History tells us that it was a beautiful summer in 1914 - everything a summer should be. This peaceful atmosphere in Europe had only 24 hours left. The next day, June 28, 1914 was Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day), a most sacred day in Serbian history. It was also the day that an Austrian Archduke and his wife would come visiting and go for a ride in Sarajevo, a city in...

JASENOVAC -- A commemoration marking the 69th anniversary of the breakout of prisoners of the Ustasha death camp Jasenovac was held on Sunday [May 4, 2014.](Beta/Hina) Attending the event, Croatian President Ivo JosipoviÄ‡ said genocide had occurred at that location and that it should never be forgotten. JosipoviÄ‡ called on everyone to protect the memory of the people who had died in that camp, a place that would remain in collective memory forever, the Croatian electronic media reported. "Evil should be called by its real name, opposed and denied any opportunity to happen ever again," he stated. Evil is not...

Ukraine is on the frontline of Russia v US superpower tensions, while a major naval base there makes it the bottom line underlying this confrontation, Richard Sakwa, professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, told RT. RT: Is Crimea becoming a new battleground between East and the West? Richard Sakwa: Putin describes the things in his speech that he told about on March 18. There is a mixture of two things going on at the moment. There is the enlargement of the EU which in the past was considered fairly benign. What happened is its mixture...

Angelina Jolie, is like the criminal in a low budget film who always returns to the scene of the crime. Jolie is shameless in returning to Bosnia after her propagandized rape movie entitled, In The Land of Blood and Honey—an irresponsible piece of film footage costing $50 million to produce that has failed miserably at the box office earning less then $5 million. Did she return to Srebrenica to mourn the dead or to rehabilitate her damaged career? Bringing with her William Hague, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is like bringing a fox to a...

The Yugoslav Army Headquarters building hasn't been rebuilt after being damaged by cruises missiles in April 1999 during NATO's bombing of Serbia over Kosovo. Belgrade (AFP Photo) Exactly 15 years ago, on March 24, NATO began its 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. The alliance bypassed the UN under a “humanitarian” pretext, launching aggression that claimed hundreds of civilian lives and caused a much larger catastrophe than it averted. Years on, Serbia still bears deep scars of the NATO bombings which, as the alliance put it, were aimed at “preventing instability spreading” in Kosovo. Questions remain on the very legality of the...

While many conservatives are crying “Communism” and “Marxism” these days, they have overlooked, and continue to overlook the dangers of a modernized fascism coming out of the heart of Europe. Although Jonah Goldberg’s bestseller, "Liberal Fascism," should have been a wake-up call, in many crucial ways, his work has since been largely ignored. Conservatives only took notice for a short while, and went back to fighting the Cold War after his book subsided from the scene. While today’s Russia and the old Soviet Union had close ties with Syria and Iran, it has been forgotten Germany’s deep interests in the...

Academics of the University of Sarajevo announce the [WWI] conference Aleksandra' Note: I have only one question at this time: Will Serbia's position be represented at this World War One conference in Sarajevo in June of 2014, and will Serbs be present at this conference? Sincerely, Aleksandra Rebic ***** A major international conference about the First World War will see 120 scholars from 28 countries meet in Sarajevo in 2014. The conference, The Position of the First World War in the History of Europe, will be held on the 19th-21st June 2014 at the University of Sarajevo. Scholars from 26...

"Night March of the Serbian Army" French WWI postcard Aleksandra's Note:As a lovely, sparkling snow falls steadily over Chicagoland on this last day of 2013, December 31st, it seems most appropriate to pay tribute to those Serb military forces and civilians who embarked on a now legendary exodus from Serbia in the late fall and winter of 1915/1916 southward through Montenegro and Albania to the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The Great Serbian Retreat, also known as the "Albanian Golgotha", was an extraordinary human event in the history of the 20th Century. Though it was a retreat, seen by the...

Legendary Serbian General Zivojin Misich The Miracle of Kolubara River 'Men still talk of the miracle of the Marne, where there is little that is miraculous. There would be more justification in talking of the miracle of the Kolubara.' British Official History of World War I ***** "'Only the passing of two or three centuries are needed to make the glorious heroism of the Serbian soldiers stand out as a legend to the generations that are to come. They will scarcely be able to believe what we have all witnessed.'" *****

BELGRADE, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Serbia signed an agreement Wednesday on military cooperation as part of further development of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The deal was overseen in Belgrade by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose visit is being seen as a prelude to a possibly imminent deal on the sale of Russian fighter jets to Serbia. Shoigu said contacts between the countries had recently reached new heights. The agreements reached Wednesday included provisions, among other things, for collaboration in peacekeeping operations under the aegis of the United Nations. Russia and Serbia have agreed...

Michael Djordjevich Guest op-ed columnTHE CURRENT Middle East quagmire, with no end in sight, has now been further accentuated and brought into focus by President Barack Obama's "red line" regarding Syria and its civil war. Our attention and concerns have now been switched from our numberless difficult and complex domestic problems to our badly flawed and costly foreign policy. To buttress their case, the proponents of attacking Syria have been trying to draw on our imaginary successes in the wars for Yugoslav succession in the decade of the 1990s in order to convince people here and abroad. Nonetheless, these comparisons,...

<p>A delicacy for medieval monarchs, a plate for the poorest and a treat for Tito, animal testicles, with a pinch of humour, are back on the menu, at least at one Serbian food festival.</p>
<p>A visitor needs no road signs to reach the tiny central village of Lunjevica, population 500. They can follow the smoke and smells from the barbecues and kettles at the 10th unofficial testicle-cooking "world championship".</p>

Monument to the Battle of Tser victory of 1914 in Serbia. Author of photo unknown at this time. Aleksandra's Note: The following comments were posted on Free Republic by “Blogger DTA on the Free Republic forum”. The points DTA makes are well worth noting as we near the Centennial of the Great War.Sincerely,Aleksandra Rebic*****"Austro-Hungarian POWs brought typhus fever to Serbia. By the end of 1914, 200,000 Serbs were dead. The typhus fever tragedy continued into 1915. It was Austro-Hungarian WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] of the time. "The Battle of Tser was the first Allied victory in WW1. It is...